A top 20-year medical researcher from the National Institutes of Mental Health talks about the extensive body of research on the Transcendental Meditation technique, which document its health benefits for all areas of life.

Dr. Norman Rosenthal, M.D., is a very smart man. With a big heart. And a patience that extends well beyond the beyond. He has to be. He is an internationally prominent psychiatrist in private practice in the Washington, D.C. area, clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, and author of several top-selling books, including Winter Blues and The Emotional Revolution. And for 20 years, Dr. Rosenthal was a senior researcher at the National Institutes of Mental Health, where he gained fame as the first scientist to describe Seasonal Affective Disorder—the dramatic influence of light on mood.

Two years ago, Dr. Rosenthal began to investigate other possible therapies to treat bipolar disorder. He selected the Transcendental Meditation technique. His preliminary findings show this program to be a fully safe adjunct to conventional therapies, and produces marked benefit for depressive patients.

These findings inspired Dr Rosenthal to deepen and expand his investigation into the applications of the TM technique, including a study on stress and productivity among meditating business executives, as well as homeless veterans who are participating in re-entry programs.

In this first in a series of interviews, Dr. Rosenthal comments on the substantial body of peer-reviewed scientific studies already conducted on the technique; in particular in the area of cardiovascular disease, and says that if the benefits of the TM program for heart health were contained in a pill, “it would be a billion-dollar blockbuster.”